LIVE from "Iceland's Natural Beauty" -- All Sailings, 2021

[Bookworm114]

36 minutes ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

I can’t imagine Viking would put them on a bus to the airport unless they had cleared this with Iceland authorities ahead of time.

Anybody know what airline they are using? Gotta get my frequent flyer miles. 

[KarNog]

Just got an email from Iceland Air for my travel on 8/20. It is now recommended by Iceland Air and by Icelandic Government that we download an app, Rakning C-19, to assist the Icelandic government in contact tracing. 

In your opinion, should I do this or should I rely on Viking's tracing medallion? While I appreciate the necessity of contact tracing, I'm not entirely sure I want to be traced in double time.

Edited August 13, 2021 by KarNog

[Ballerina Sweetie Pie]

1 hour ago, Retired2016Cruiser said:

We are scheduled for the 8/17 cruise, along with 2 other couples.  I'm also thinking as long as that's the worst case scenario, while it would be very disappointing, I'll be ready to do that...just watch the beautiful scenery.  But, hoping the 8/17 cruise will be without incident!

I would be more worried that I’d test negative until the day before departure…wasted cruise days then quarantine in a hotel

[hodges97]

I just did a chat with Viking regarding our 8/31 Jupiter cruise.  They aren't willing to admit that any of this is happening.  What she said was that it was a fluid situation.  Yada Yada Yada.  We can cancel till Monday.  But, Viking needs to step up, tell us what's going on, and probably offer refunds at this point.  

[BQEC]

15 minutes ago, KarNog said:

Just got an email from Iceland Air for my travel on 8/20. It is now recommended by Iceland Air and by Icelandic Government that we download an app, Rakning C-19, to assist the Icelandic government in contact tracing. 

In your opinion, should I do this or should I rely on Viking's tracing medallion? While I appreciate the necessity of contact tracing, I'm not entirely sure I want to be traced in double time.

Viking is taking care of contact tracking and apparently cooperating with the Icelandic Government. No need to duplicate the effort as you will be in a mandatory Viking bubble. 

[rbslos18]

2 hours ago, sleepybobo said:

 

70 over 715 is almost 10%.  Not sure if I agree risk of interruption is low.  Of course, everyone has to do their own risk/reward analysis.  We have different risk tolerance level.  

According to the CDC the statistical odds of getting breakthrough COVID is less than 1%. "New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that less than 1% of fully vaccinated Americans experience a breakthrough infection." 

The shots and daily testing are right. The quarantine of people who test negative, are wearing masks, and are in close proximity of an infected person makes no sense with 99+% adds they will be fine.

[rbslos18]

2 hours ago, sleepybobo said:

 

70 over 715 is almost 10%.  Not sure if I agree risk of interruption is low.  Of course, everyone has to do their own risk/reward analysis.  We have different risk tolerance level.  

According to the CDC the statistical odds of getting breakthrough COVID is less than 1%. "New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that less than 1% of fully vaccinated Americans experience a breakthrough infection." 

The shots and daily testing are right. The quarantine of people who test negative, are wearing masks, and are in close proximity of an infected person makes no sense with 99+% odds they will be fine. The odds of a ship-wide spread are miniscule.

[rbslos18]

2 hours ago, sleepybobo said:

 

70 over 715 is almost 10%.  Not sure if I agree risk of interruption is low.  Of course, everyone has to do their own risk/reward analysis.  We have different risk tolerance level.  

According to the CDC the statistical odds of getting breakthrough COVID is less than 1%. "New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that less than 1% of fully vaccinated Americans experience a breakthrough infection." 

The shots and daily testing are right. The quarantine of people who test negative, are wearing masks, and are in close proximity of an infected person makes no sense with 99+% odds they will be fine. The odds of a ship-wide spread are miniscule.

[Snit13]

17 minutes ago, hodges97 said:

I just did a chat with Viking regarding our 8/31 Jupiter cruise.  They aren't willing to admit that any of this is happening.  What she said was that it was a fluid situation.  Yada Yada Yada.  We can cancel till Monday.  But, Viking needs to step up, tell us what's going on, and probably offer refunds at this point.  

We 4 canceled our shore excursions last night and plan to cancel the cruise on Monday.  We really didn't want to do this but after what happened to the recently reported group who are now on the bus we  decided we didn't want to go thru that.  This is cruise number 5 for me that I didn't get to go on because of world wide health issues.

[gramfrog]

39 minutes ago, Bookworm114 said:

Anybody know what airline they are using? Gotta get my frequent flyer miles. 

The six staterooms traveling with us (from various states) were put on Delta, United, and IcelandAir.

[gramfrog]

22 minutes ago, hodges97 said:

I just did a chat with Viking regarding our 8/31 Jupiter cruise.  They aren't willing to admit that any of this is happening.  What she said was that it was a fluid situation.  Yada Yada Yada.  We can cancel till Monday.  But, Viking needs to step up, tell us what's going on, and probably offer refunds at this point.  

Correct. I called on Tuesday, the last day that the twelve of us could cancel, and Viking said basically "everything's fine and under control".  So now we can't cancel without losing everything.  If it was the 12 of us, we would cancel today....

[Rappersmom]

1 hour ago, diana11 said:

I feel sorry for people who are not a member of this forum or the Viking facebook groups. They will be unaware that if a passenger on their excursion bus who later tests positive can completely ruin their entire cruise.

Surely it is up to Viking to address this possible scenario with future cruisers BEFORE the 2 week cancellation deadline. It is then up to the passengers to decide whether to take this risk or not. 

I will be waiting to see if there is a class action suit on this.

[Rappersmom]

18 minutes ago, rbslos18 said:

According to the CDC the statistical odds of getting breakthrough COVID is less than 1%. "New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that less than 1% of fully vaccinated Americans experience a breakthrough infection." 

The shots and daily testing are right. The quarantine of people who test negative, are wearing masks, and are in close proximity of an infected person makes no sense with 99+% odds they will be fine. The odds of a ship-wide spread are miniscule.

And yet with 90% of Iceland vaccinated, way more than half of their cases are breakthrough with vaccinated people. Don't know how that squares with odds from CDC. But regardless, Iceland is making the rules here. Their country, their rules.

[Clay Clayton]

Someone posted this on the site that cannot be named. 

[Wander58]

2 hours ago, Retired2016Cruiser said:

We are scheduled for the 8/17 cruise, along with 2 other couples.  I'm also thinking as long as that's the worst case scenario, while it would be very disappointing, I'll be ready to do that...just watch the beautiful scenery.  But, hoping the 8/17 cruise will be without incident!

I couldn't agree more!  See you Monday at EWR!

[gramfrog]

the more active Delta Variant is causing breakthrough (already vaccinated) positive tests at this point (as of yesterday) of between one and four percent.  There may be no symptoms, but will create that positive test.  Last week, before I boarded a test cruise for NCL, in a room of maybe 120 people in stages of testing over a twenty minute period, four people were pulled out and not allowed to sail b/c of positive tests.  An unknown number of others could not sail over the two hours of pre-sail testing.  All had the required vaccination cards.  We were not tested once on the ship, and were not asked to report at the conclusion of the four night cruise if we fell ill.  My roommate tested positive also-- she decided to "avoid any embarrassment" (as did I) and tested at CVS the day before we were to fly, test, and sail. She was positive, and again, two days later, tested positive.  Picture of health.   She saved herself the cost of the air from Dallas to Seattle.  Others were not so lucky.  I think it's good that we test ourselves before getting on that plane to Reykjavik....  So with, say 4 of one hundred testing positive, or even, at the low end, one of one hundred testing positive, you can see on a ship like Viking we are going to experience Covid alarms.  What they decide to do about everyone else on the ship is telling...... 

[LindaS272]

11 minutes ago, Rappersmom said:

And yet with 90% of Iceland vaccinated, way more than half of their cases are breakthrough with vaccinated people. Don't know how that squares with odds from CDC. But regardless, Iceland is making the rules here. Their country, their rules.

But the point is that Viking is not being transparent with current and future cruisers about the risks of being swept up in unnecessary quarantine.

[Tanumveien]

I appreciate all of the feedback people have been giving re: the testing Viking is doing, packing, shore excursions, etc. I’m scheduled on the 8/31 Jupiter voyage and Am rethinking this cruise. Not sure it’s worth it to fly all the way to Iceland, only to be quarantined because someone else tests positive and then have to leave the voyage early…..

 

 

 

[sleepybobo]

35 minutes ago, rbslos18 said:

According to the CDC the statistical odds of getting breakthrough COVID is less than 1%. "New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that less than 1% of fully vaccinated Americans experience a breakthrough infection." 

The shots and daily testing are right. The quarantine of people who test negative, are wearing masks, and are in close proximity of an infected person makes no sense with 99+% adds they will be fine.

Thanks for the statistics.  I wasn't referring to chance of infection when I said 10%.  I understand that breakthrough infection resulted in serious illness and hospitalization is extremely rare.  I was referring to risk of vaccinated people with negative results being quarantined.  

[BarbRN]

5 minutes ago, Tanumveien said:

I appreciate all of the feedback people have been giving re: the testing Viking is doing, packing, shore excursions, etc. I’m scheduled on the 8/31 Jupiter voyage and Am rethinking this cruise. Not sure it’s worth it to fly all the way to Iceland, only to be quarantined because someone else tests positive and then have to leave the voyage early…..

 

 

 

Exactly. Wish I could chose not to go. Watch your dates. They won’t let you postpone after that 14 day requirement. 

[rbslos18]

1 minute ago, sleepybobo said:

Thanks for the statistics.  I wasn't referring to chance of infection when I said 10%.  I understand that breakthrough infection resulted in serious illness and hospitalization is extremely rare.  I was referring to risk of vaccinated people with negative results being quarantined.  

Yes I agree. The odds of being quarantined by Viking greatly exceeds the risk of testing positive if you are vaccinated. Viking needs to change its current policy soon or face large numbers of cancellations. We would be crazy to take our 15 day December cruise with this hanging over our heads.

[rbslos18]

4 minutes ago, BarbRN said:

Exactly. Wish I could chose not to go. Watch your dates. They won’t let you postpone after that 14 day requirement. 

You are right but make the best of your situation. Have fun and enjoy. We are routing for you. The odds of getting quarantined while dramatically higher than testing positive is only around 10%. But when it happens...oh my.

Edited August 13, 2021 by rbslos18

[jtwind]

5 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

Contact tracing then was being within 6 feet of a positive person for more then 15 minutes over a 24 hour period.  So dining at those too close 2 person tables in The Restaurant, sitting across/behind someone on a bus, sitting at the same 6 person excursion lunch table or near someone in the Theatre would qualify.  But not the whole bus, Theatre or Restaurant.  Vikings policy is the same but they are required to report any Covid positives on board but must comply with what Iceland tells them to do which has changed dramatically in the last couple of weeks.

This is exactly what people have been looking for.  Where did you get this info?

 

OK.  It has been determined that the devices don't have gps data.  This means that the person reviewing the data has no idea whether the folks were masked or unmasked, and whether the folks were outdoors or indoors.  These things make a HUGE difference in determining whether there was close contact or not.  Interviews would normally be performed to determine these.  In fact, we did have a single poster who described their interview process.  Do these rules mention an interview process?

[sleepybobo]

8 minutes ago, rbslos18 said:

Yes I agree. The odds of being quarantined by Viking greatly exceeds the risk of testing positive if you are vaccinated. Viking needs to change its current policy soon or face large numbers of cancellations. We would be crazy to take our 15 day December cruise with this hanging over our heads.

Totally agree with you.  I really hope Viking rethinks its current policy.  This policy now is rounding up a good number of people in quarantine unnecessarily.  

 

I also have a December cruise scheduled.  I may reschedule if the current policy is still place in December.  

[Heartgrove]

1 hour ago, KarNog said:

Just got an email from Iceland Air for my travel on 8/20. It is now recommended by Iceland Air and by Icelandic Government that we download an app, Rakning C-19, to assist the Icelandic government in contact tracing. 

In your opinion, should I do this or should I rely on Viking's tracing medallion? While I appreciate the necessity of contact tracing, I'm not entirely sure I want to be traced in double time.

 

Unless you are entirely using Viking for your travel (Viking Air, transfers, and only a trip in-and-out), you would be wise to download the Rakning C-19 app. After our cruise in July, we did a week-long drive in the Westfjords Region. Hotels of course had our information, and every restaurant we ate at required name, date we entered the country, passport number, and reachable phone number. We didn't receive any notifications.